Emerging Natural Therapies for the Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

The term "inflammatory bowel disease," which includes Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), refers to a chronic inflammatory condition of the digestive system. There are many different treatment options, such as corticosteroids, biologics, 5-aminosalicylate, and immune-suppressants, but none of them can maintain the disease remission for a longer period, which is the ultimate goal of treatment. Furthermore, they have numerous serious side effects like nephrotoxicity, infertility, congestive heart failure, myopathy, etc. So, in order to treat these conditions, researchers are concentrating more on natural medicine that is less expensive and has fewer side effects. The current analysis includes a list of plants showing promising activity against IBD. These include Cannabis sativa, Aloe vera, Boswellia serrata, Withania somnifera, Curcuma longa, Triticum aestivum, and many others. These plants need to be further investigated in terms of preclinical and clinical studies to obtain the safety and efficacy data necessary for their commercialisation. Global regulatory norms will facilitate simple commercialisation. Also, more investigation is required to pinpoint the precise mechanism of action to confirm clinical success.

Keywords: Chron’s disease; Herbal therapy; Medicinal plants; Ulcerative colitis; inflammatory bowel disease.